Nine Ways of Forgiveness

Chapter 6

Holy cow! A second chapter! It is a bit shorter than normal, but I wanted to get it out with Chapter 5 since it has been so long since I've updated. I hope everyone is doing okay!

----

As we parked, Gabby started bouncing in her seat. "Ready?" I asked, looking back at her.

She nodded and grinned at me. "Yep!"

As soon as Marc put the car in park, Gabby was unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the door. I got out of the car as well as Marc turned it off. He walked around the car to walk beside me as Gabby ran ahead of us into the store. Neither of us had been to this particular store before, but we headed towards where we thought the paints and painting supplies would be. As we wandered the different aisles, I stopped to look at all the different crafting supplies and home decor options. All the fake roses and plants drew me. It would be a nice pop of color in the house without having to remember to take care of a live plant. Which, now that I'm thinking about it, is kind of a strange thought when I have a daughter.

I turned to the next aisle and looked around. I frowned when I didn't see Gabby. She normally stayed near us. I scanned the parts of the store that I could see. When I couldn't find her, I could feel my breathing speeding up. I scanned the store more quickly as if I would be able to find her faster the quicker I looked. The news anchor's words came back to me as I panicked: "There's been a rise in missing person reports concerning children under the age of ten over the past month. Police are urging all parents to pay attention to their children and always know their whereabouts."

Hands grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. Mismatched green and blue eyes stared into my solid green ones. "Sang! It's okay. I'm sure she's here somewhere. She was really excited. We'll have to explain to her about this." I nodded, but my breathing wasn't slowing down. "Sang. Deep, slow breaths with me." He inhaled deeply and I tried to match him. Within a few minutes, I had calmed down.

"Let's go find the paints. Maybe she already found them and is just waiting for us," I said, walking through the store quickly. I looked down each aisle I passed, searching for my daughter.

After a couple more minutes of searching, I found the aisle with the paints, and there looking up at the paints was my gorgeous daughter. I ran over to her and wrapped her in my arms, ignoring everyone else in the aisle. "Gabby! You scared the living daylights out of me! Sweetie, don't just run off! You could have gotten hurt!"

"Oh. Okay, Mommy. I'm sorry. I just...I was so excited."

I pulled away and looked into her gorgeous green eyes. "I know, Sweetie. I know. I'm not mad. I was just scared."

"Okay, Mommy. I'll try not to scare you anymore," she said, nodding.

"Hey, Sang?" Marc said. I looked over at him. Anger clouded his features and he was staring at something else behind Gabby. "There's someone you need to see."

Before I could turn around, I heard, "Sang?" from behind me.